When Louisiana Tech inked five freshmen as part of its 2014 signing class, it was presumably done to help offset the losses of seniors Kenyon McNeail, Jaron Johnson, Chris Anderson and Cordarius Johnson and the future departures of Speedy Smith, Raheem Appleby and Michale Kyser.

Four of the five freshmen — Xavian Stapleton, Jacobi Boykins, Joniah White and Dayon Griffin — ended up making early contributions, while Branden Sheppard redshirted with a log jam in the front court.

But looking back, the players from that signing class ended up giving Tech flexibility for 2015 to go out and bring in junior college players or transfers without undermining the master plan that is to continue to build the Bulldogs' program.

In doing so, Tech coach Michael White was able to sign JUCO guard Dominic Jackson last fall and ink JUCO foward Justin Leon on Wednesday during the first day of the signing period. Tech also received a commitment from Florida A&M transfer Jermaine Ruttley on Tuesday and is after JUCO forward JaQuan Smith.

"Yearly, it's an evaluation of what you have and how to complement it the best way," White said Wednesday. "Again, our young corps allows you to plug in some older guys to best help them."

The idea of bringing in junior college or transfers who can contribute immediately has long been a topic of discussion. Normally, it's a quick fix or way to bring in leadership. In Tech's case, it's the latter.

If Tech didn't have Stapleton, Boykins, White and Griffin around for the next three years, or in Sheppard's case the next four years, then the JUCO route wouldn't make much sense.

And to be fair, Tech didn't put all it's eggs in the JUCO/transfer basket. The Bulldogs signed high school point guard Derric Jean last fall and also had a commitment from high school point guard Jeremiah Martin until last weekend when he flipped to Memphis.

When Martin decommitted, the attention quickly turned to making sure Tech didn't lose out on Leon. Ruttley's availability as a transfer wasn't even know until the past week, so the recent transactions were hardly scripted, although the Bulldogs had been looking for a graduate transfer.

No matter, the end result is what Tech wanted. The Bulldogs added depth and athleticism while maintaining a young core.

"We'll be arguably as athletic, if not more athletic, and we'll be bigger," White said. "Hopefully that translates into being a much better rebounding team. There's a lot that remains to be seen in terms of the intangibles that these new guys will bring and the maturation of our young guys."

The pieces are there, however.

"We also can't forget how hard it will be to replace that leadership that we lost," White said. "That's something we're looking forward to next year's team. We'll be very, very different but we've got something to work with."